By: fallen angel

In Phuket, I went for parasailing, and from a supposedly fun activity, it turned out sour, at least for me. Don’t worry, I’m all fine, all healthy and unhurt, but the experience leaves a sour taste in the mouth, and I’ll tell you why.

We walked down the beach to find the best rate for parasailing, which was going for about 1000 Baht per person. We managed to find out that is willing to give us a rate of 800 Baht per person (there were 3 of us), with a guide that will follow us up and take care of us, so we said okay.

Our friend were supposed to go first, but seeing her freaking out, I volunteered to go first. They strapped the gear on me, and I had to stand and wait while they get the boat ready. The guide, not the same one that agreed on the price with us, came over to me and said, I will take care of you, 100 Baht. Of course, on principle, this wasn’t what I agreed on in the first place, and I said, this is not what I agreed on.

This is another sly tactic of a con, getting you to agree to the base price, and after getting you ready and all, telling you there’s extra charges, normally a small percentage of the base price. It usually works, because people will not want to go through the hassle and reverse the decision that they made. Apparently, I read in some research before that overturning a decision is much more difficult than making the decision itself. So if it’s just a small thing, i.e. a small percentage on top of the base price, people would usually agree, grudgingly or not.

But of course, when such tactics are used on me, it doesn’t usually work, at least not so easily. I said, we agreed on 800 Baht, and that includes a guide who will take care of us, and he said, no, that’s not the same. I said, if that’s not the same I’m not gonna do it. He then said, okay, okay, it’s the same.

I had a bad feeling then. The feeling that I get is the same feeling that you will get when you suspect your waiter would spit in your food. I had a split second to decide whether I should go ahead, but since we’re already there, I’m all strapped and ready, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and go ahead.

It was a bad decision.

It all went fine when we went out, and I had a great view of the beach, and I kinda enjoyed it, save for the paranoid me who noticed that the string that linked me to the boat are kinda worn out. However, when I was coming down, he shouted for me to run, and as I tried to run in the air, my feet hit the ground with such force that I felt extreme pain shooting from my feet up and fell backfirst. I couldn’t get up for about a minute, with my feet and ankles in extreme pain. When I tried to stand, it hurt, so I lied down for a while more until the pain goes away.

To me, it felt like the guide wanted to teach me a lesson for not wanting to give him the additional 100 Baht. I worry for both the girls that would go up, and I complained to the person who seemed to be the leader of the group, and asked him to tell the guide to take care of the girls. You don’t take care of me, that’s fine, but take care of the girls.

To my relief, the girls got a painless landing. The guide would swing himself down and run first, before letting the girls down.

Thinking back, I either should’ve just said “okay”, or “if you really take care of me, maybe”. At least I can argue about what we agreed on earlier after he has done what he should’ve done and took care of me. I probably shouldn’t piss these people off before they actually perform the service, similar to how I should treat waiters if I don’t want them to spit in my food. These people aren’t professionals, they’re just people waiting to extract as much cash from the tourists as possible. No point giving them the benefit of the doubt.

At the end of the whole thing, one of them has the cheek to even ask for tip. No sir, no can do. Not while I limp back to the hotel.

Lesson learned, and watch out! Be savvier than me, and don’t repeat the mistakes I did.